I tried watching the debate as objectively as I could, as if I was an undecided voter watching this debate with no preconceptions about either candidate. No obviously my inherent bias will still show through, but when i focused on Romney, I kept getting struck by the same thing: Romney was most effective and convincing when he talked about the state of the economy, so it's perfectly understandable why he'd bring it up in nearly every response during the debate. However, he seemed the most ineffective and unconvincing when talking about what he'd actually do to improve the economy, so pretty much every time he played his strongest hand it was immediately followed by his weakest, in my mind. The very first question was "how will you work to ensure that college kids will be able to find jobs once they graduate?" His answer was essentially "This economy, it's a mess! And here are some negative statistics to support my point. What am I going to do? Well... no stats or details, but... we've got to make sure there are jobs once you graduate!"

Every time he brought up the state of the economy, it was followed by similar vague platitudes that sounded nice but provided absolutely no insight into his policy ("I know what a strong economy looks like" doesn't tell us a damn thing, Governor), or in fact were in direct contradiction to his policy (Pell grants). When Obama called him on his lack of detail (on the tax plan, specifically), Romney's only response was "of course the math adds up." He couldn't actually provide any data to back that assertion up, however.

Despite Romney's gains in the last few weeks, this kind of obvious lack of a substance can't be doing Romney any favors. It might be the economy, stupid, but if you can't provide any detail to show how you'll fix it, then I can't imagine independents flocking to you all that drastically. Particularly if Obama and his administration keep up the pressure on calling Romney out on it.

Location: In a dimension known as the Twilight Zone...do de doo doo, do de doo doo...

Posts: 19,402

Local Time: 01:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dazzledbylight

Once again some pretty big hypocracy.

i do wish Present Obama had highlighted the incredible amount of fillarbustering etc that Repbuplican House members have engaged vin Esp as how it related to another stimulus bill that he wanted passed.

Thank you for your thing about the hypocrisy on that issue, that's a good point, too. Talk of security is great and all, and certainly a necessity, but it's hard to properly secure everyone when you keep voting down bills that would actually, you know, help with that stuff.

I'm honestly not well-versed enough in all the details on the Benghazi thing, but I'm fairly certain that there's a lot of circumstances that were tied to that. It sucks, absolutely, and it's a tragic failure. But I don't think it was some sort of weird deliberate thing on Obama's part or whatever the hell Romney tried to paint it as. And anitram's right that it's not going to be the defining factor for this election. Especially since I'm sure most Americans couldn't point out Benghazi, or Libya, or anyplace in that general area, on a map. The economy, as always, winds up being front and center.

I also heard about the thing MrsS shared, too, about Romney's "binders" thing being untrue. If that's the case, that doesn't surprise me, but the binder thing wasn't even the part that bothered me the most about Romney's comments at that point in the debate.

No, it was the fact that, instead of focusing on listing suggestions on how to not only bring more women into the workplace, but also make them feel part of it and valued and making sure they're being paid what they're worth, he decided to turn the whole thing into a bragging moment for himself. It came off to me as, "Look how great I am that I took the initiative to find some women to work for us, I was just SO observant in realizing we were low on female employees! Aren't I Mr. Wonderful?" No one cares, Romney, try and focus on the topic at hand.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Diemen

However, he seemed the most ineffective and unconvincing when talking about what he'd actually do to improve the economy, so pretty much every time he played his strongest hand it was immediately followed by his weakest, in my mind. The very first question was "how will you work to ensure that college kids will be able to find jobs once they graduate?" His answer was essentially "This economy, it's a mess! And here are some negative statistics to support my point. What am I going to do? Well... no stats or details, but... we've got to make sure there are jobs once you graduate!"

Every time he brought up the state of the economy, it was followed by similar vague platitudes that sounded nice but provided absolutely no insight into his policy ("I know what a strong economy looks like" doesn't tell us a damn thing, Governor), or in fact were in direct contradiction to his policy (Pell grants). When Obama called him on his lack of detail (on the tax plan, specifically), Romney's only response was "of course the math adds up." He couldn't actually provide any data to back that assertion up, however.

Despite Romney's gains in the last few weeks, this kind of obvious lack of a substance can't be doing Romney any favors. It might be the economy, stupid, but if you can't provide any detail to show how you'll fix it, then I can't imagine independents flocking to you all that drastically. Particularly if Obama and his administration keep up the pressure on calling Romney out on it.

Obama is already polling ahead in the election that has already started.

and as many have said the election all comes down to Ohio,

Quote:

11 hours ago
Ohio touts early voting numbers

CNN Political Unit

(CNN) – More than 1.4 million Ohio voters have either cast or requested an absentee ballot for the November election, Ohio's secretary of state Jon Husted announced Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the state had to keep open its voting booths in the final three days–Saturday, Sunday, Monday–before Election Day, rejecting Republican-led attempts to try and force all counties to close their polling locations that same weekend.

Democrats praised the decision, arguing the original law would have disproportionately affected Democratic voters. Republicans had maintained the state needed those final three days to organize and prepare for Election Day.
Voters in Ohio began casting ballots on October 2–or on September 22 for those in the military–as part of its early voting calendar.

Of those who have requested absentee ballots to vote by mail, roughly 22% have cast their ballot, including about 16% of military service members who have asked for ballots.

Meanwhile, about 124,000 Ohioans have cast an absentee ballot in person at the board of elections or a designated early vote center, Husted's office said.

His office also points out that the 7.9 million registered voters in Ohio have 264 total hours available for in-person voting before Election Day, including the final weekend.

the voting that is happening right now in Ohio is most likely favoring Obama. On election night when the election is called and Ohio goes for Obama, keep in mind that it may have been over before that day began.

Tagg Romney did not like it when President Obama accused his dad of dishonesty during Tuesday night's debate.

In an interview with a local North Carolina radio station Wednesday, the candidate's eldest son was asked what it was like "to hear the president of the United States call your dad a liar."

"Jump out of your seat and you want to rush down to the stage and take a swing at him," Tagg responded, laughing. "But you know you can't do that because, well, first because there's a lot of Secret Service between you and him, but also because that's the nature of the process."

He went on, "They're gonna try to do everything they can do to try to make my into someone he's not. we signed up for it, we've gotta try to kind of sit there and take our punches, and then send them right back the other way."

Tagg was also asked how his father feels before the high-stakes presidential debates.

"Are you kidding? He's terrified before he gets out there!" he responded, before correcting himself, "Terrified is too strong a word. but you know, like anybody, he gets butterflies a little bit. And then once he's in it, two or three minutes, he's forgotten about the nervousness."

There are things I won't put in emails or say when I speak to a room full of 400 people.

One or our local politicians said the others he serves with can get addicted to spending like it is cocaine, in an opinion piece. When I was speaking with one of those other officials he was all agitated about it. I told him to stop acting like a crack whore.

in CA there are probably 30 to 40 items for me to vote on, 2 -3 propositions raise taxes, one bans capital punishment, one mandates labels for genetically mod. food.,
not to mention state legislators. The President, all 55 electoral votes will go to Obama, the other things, often are very close.